John Boswell

Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, SAS

John Boswell oversees legal services and contract administration worldwide for SAS. In this role, he leads a group of more than 96 attorneys and 300 staff members globally. He is also responsible for the Government Affairs, Enterprise Negotiation and Risk departments at SAS. As part of the executive management team, Boswell helps set direction and policies for the company.

Given that intellectual property is essential to SAS, Boswell has taken a leading role in the fight to reform patent and patent litigation laws. His efforts have focused on the patent troll problem. Boswell has been successful in achieving reforms in both state and federal laws in this area.

“Because big data is so important to our customers, I have directed much of my attention to the data privacy reform efforts in Europe,” said Boswell. He is a recognized industry spokesman to the European parliament, the European Commission and the member states stressing the economic opportunity afforded by big data, innovation and analytics, as well as the potential negative effect new privacy regulations can have on European economic growth.

He began his career at SAS as a Senior Marketing Counsel, leading domestic and international sales negotiations. Before joining SAS, Boswell was President of Vista Development Corp. and served as General Counsel and Secretary for Raima Corp. Prior to that, he was in private practice.

Boswell holds a law degree and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of South Carolina at Columbia. His primary philanthropy efforts involve protecting and empowering African AIDS orphans through the charity ZOE Ministry.